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There's definitely a "This used to be an MMO" vibe to the demo with the quests and such, but I find the combat generally entertaining and it seems rather interesting to put that combat into an RPG. I was rather impressed that the traps I ran into, for example, were actually trap-like instead of something like, say, Dragon Age where you avoid traps by having a high skill and inching forward with that person while tactically holding everyone else back.

Interesting comment about the MMO because as I understand it, they're developing an MMO using this IP, and this specific game was put out first because they wanted to get the IP out there, and because it could be produced faster than an IP. So when you say "this used to be a MMO" it makes me wonder if they're going to use the same assets for their future MMO. I guess we won't know for about 3 or 4 years though, given the gestation time of MMOs these days.

It's an unfair complaint, anyway, when MMO tropes have been pervading all RPGs to some extent for years now. But you're absolutely right, this game was never an MMO. It was being made by Big Huge Games before they were acquired by 38 Studios and the title was retooled to tie in to the Amalur lore ahead of the MMO which is still coming.

<<The player starts off as a "blank slate," waking up in a pile of corpses after returning from the dead. The game will utilize a unique "destiny" system, whereby the player can invest in a skill-tree system to unlock various "destinies," which acts as the class system for the game. >>

The subtext of the game:

The FAE are people educated under the old education system, with the mass media controlling the society opinions.
The card-readers (that the game shows like some sort of paladins with full plate) are the journalist. Good people that are part of the old order, so you probably will destroy his old world.
You are a blogger, a blank slate. The journalist don't know what to say about you, because you are not part of the old narrative. So you can be anything.
But then something happends, something terrible, a crysis created by a "evil faction of FAE" (=financial industry).

Is a game, where the hero is a blogger from the Occupy Wall Street people.

I enjoyed the demo a lot more on the Xbox 360. The interface is clearly made for consoles - and with the post-processing stuff active - the world is much better looking. Giving me a serious Ashenvale WoW vibe (loved that stuff).

My ATI card has that bug which makes post-processing defective - so my time with the PC version wasn't great. Especially not with the awful sound-cutting and glitchy interface.

Explored a few dungeons and what not, and I now see it as having a decent potential.

It's like a more serious Fable with 10 times the content.

It remains to be seen if the writing improves and if the character system holds up. But so far, it's not as bad as I thought.

Played the demo on 360. The game is okay. I think it's an interesting idea to marry Fable style combat to WoW. I'm not sure the result is something I really like. I certainly won't be paying $60 or even $40 for it. If I ever get this, it will be at the $20 or lower price.

I think Shim and I are going to get it. It looks like a nice change of pace for times when I've had enough "dark and gritty" and want to smash crates with a big sword. (I think my mage will carry one exclusively for that purpose).

The PC interface is a bit of a struggle, but it got somewhat better once I realized that "i" would close the inventory screens, so no need to esc esc esc.

I played the demo on XBox last night, not bad but not mind-blowing. Graphics are a little bland, combat was pretty cool, menus and UI are terrible (seriously, five clicks to back out of the Inventory and resume the game??), story and writing are adequate, and you get to smash crates in a non-ironic way, which lends to the paint-by-numbers, checklist design feeling.

So I thought it was decent and fun enough to play with friends, and then I found out that it's a strictly single-player endeavor. I guess that makes sense given that it's just a big commercial for an MMO, but that has me relegating this title to the bargain bin. Your ARPG has to have something pretty special going for it to compel to play it without any friends, and so far I haven't seen anything about KOA that rates so highly that I'll feel justified paying $60 for it.

Theres two types of staffs. One is a mele weapon with aoe combos, the other shot proyectiles. If you want, you can shot the crates with this one. My charecter was a mage archer, so i was using two pools of ammo: arrows and mana. The game sell itself short. Is not a combat system with main weapon and a aux, but a two weapons + magic.

I played the demo on XBox last night, not bad but not mind-blowing. Graphics are a little bland, combat was pretty cool, menus and UI are terrible (seriously, five clicks to back out of the Inventory and resume the game??)

I just finished the demo of it and I found the combat to be the best part of the game.

I would describe it as the sort of Elder Scrolls crafting and world size, with the questing and art design of world of warcraft, with something along the lines of the Fable combat system.

It looked very much like you could go back and forth between warrior, rogue and magic. The only thing that would lock you to a role appeared to be the skill trees, in the demo I spread my points out amongst all three and earned a Destiny Card for Jack of All Trades that supported that style of play.

The demo is buggy, I had to disable post processing just so I could see the game. The game camera needs to be adjusted to follow the direction you are facing and needs to be lifted up a touch, sometimes it gets in the way.

I think it's probably gonna be a good game, so I'm gonna go ahead and get it myself.

The demo is buggy, I had to disable post processing just so I could see the game. The game camera needs to be adjusted to follow the direction you are facing and needs to be lifted up a touch, sometimes it gets in the way.

I think it's probably gonna be a good game, so I'm gonna go ahead and get it myself.

This was my exact experience playing the demo off Steam last night.

Took three reboots before I realized the post-processing bug myself as I couldn't at all see the game engine visuals otherwise. Once that was sorted out, I spent the rest of the 45 minutes wrestling with the camera as I then couldn't at all see the enemies I was facing.

Beyond those woes, it's alright. The sheer amount of jank I experienced in the demo was off the charts. Gave the impression of an American studio trying to make a European RPG. I support these endeavors and will buy, but I am really hoping the final build has more polish.

I liked the demo enough to play a couple more times. I'm happier with it -- more content with inventory management because of the i shortcut, and because after using fast travel -> shop, selling whatever you want there is very quick and painless.

One bad thing I noticed -- some dungeon levels were re-used in different instances. Not, like, 2 quests go to the same location, but instead ostensibly totally separate locations happen to be identical on the inside.

For PC:
If you have 1-2 hours time and can stomach some medicore console-port then yes. I played it as rogue and it kinda reminded me of WoW vanilla extremely zoomed in.
Combat is by far the best thing of the game (as rogue it's a bit like a fighting game with combos).

Probably will pick it up as my "WoW rogue" replacement (I stopped playing it last year) in a while when it's cheap.

I loath the artstyle (I am more of a Skyrim/Witcher2 kind of art style guy) but otherwise the demo was fun. Seems like a strong debut. I am not going to buy it though, there are too many other games I am interested in.

I've been going back and forth on this for the past 2 days. But I've finally cancelled my preorder. No matter how much I slice it, this game can't compete for my playtime with either SWTOR or Skyrim (especially with the Mod Tools so close to release).

The game I tried is nice enough, but not too memorable. I'm not even impatient for it to come out. As such, I don't need a release day purchase. I might pick it up in a 50% sale later.

I didn't play enough to form an opinion on the game yet, but if they can keep the action combat system when they make their MMO that would be great.

We played the demo on Steam with no problems, although interestingly the return address for the email I got thanking me for playing it included "ea." I still plan to buy the game, partly to help a new developer of RPGs get started, partly because I think it will be a fun alternative when I feel like something lighter weight.